Australia’s two largest cities are now on lockdown, with Sydney still the hardest hit today with 97 new positive cases of COVID-19.
However, Melbourne is also grappling with the highly contagious Delta variant, with a handful of cases imported from Sydney putting Victoria in a five-day ban from yesterday.
That could further complicate the Supercars schedule following the recent Sydney SuperNight postponement.
Sources have suggested that Plan A was for the Winton event, which was postponed twice to the date originally reserved for Sydney Motorsport Park, August 20-22.
However, that now depends on whether the Melbourne outbreak can be brought quickly under control and when Queensland – home to three teams – reopens the border with Victoria, which will be closed tonight.
The Queensland Raceway is also rumored to be an option for hosting the series in the coming weeks, although that too could be made more difficult by the border closure between Queensland and Victoria.
Should QR come into play, the Melbourne teams could stay on the streets due to the Queensland / Victoria border closure.
A number of Melbourne-based teams have confirmed to Motorsport.com that the current plan remains to return home on Monday.
Supercars must complete a minimum of 12 laps to complete its delegation agreement, which explains the contingency plans for hazardous incidents.
The Townsville SuperSprint this weekend is the seventh event of the season.
Motorsport.com assume that a double header in Perth has also been considered.
As it stands, the Perth SuperNight, Auckland SuperSprint, Bathurst 1000, Sydney SuperNight, Winton SuperSprint and Gold Coast 500 are all either on the remaining part of the schedule or expected to resume.